Physical Health and Stress

Are you suffering from aches and pains due to working from home, not exercising, and being stressed out by Covid-19? Welcome to the club!

I re-opened my practice on July 2 and have been busy treating my patients that I have not seen in over three months. Each patient brought a unique story and various aches and pains. Some came in with lingering pains from before the pandemic, while others brought me new musculoskeletal complaints to figure out. The common thread among all of my patients thus far has been STRESS.

Stress surrounding finances, childhood education, lost jobs, and health anxiety to name a few. I don’t treat any of these problems directly, but I do treat the physical manifestations of stress: muscular tension, stiff joints, injuries and PAIN. One physical finding I discovered in most of my patients since returning to work is neck tension.  Whether it was the months of worry, poor ergonomics while working from home, or just the continuation of poor neck mechanics without the reprieve of a chiropractic treatment, each patient that has presented to me so far had significant neck tension either causing neck pain or headaches, or contributing to other symptoms like back pain or hand numbness.

If ever there was a time to prioritize taking care of your body, NOW IS THAT TIME.

I often explain to patients that many of our aches and pains are the result of poor movement patterns that we have cultivated over months and years. The past few months of living, working, parenting, etc. from home is a microcosm of this concept. If you and I are noticing physical stress, injury, and pains arise after only a few months of poor movement patterns while stuck at home, imagine how that plays out when these patterns exist for years or decades. So, in the interest of good present and future health, I will repeat myself:

If ever there was a time to prioritize taking care of your body, NOW IS THAT TIME.

- Dr. Michael Berenstein